[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 153 (Thursday, September 18, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6712-S6713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SUPPORT FOR PATIENTS AND COMMUNITIES REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2025

  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I rise today to pass into law a lifesaving 
bipartisan legislation that will enable us to keep fighting the opioid 
and fentanyl epidemic, an epidemic that has destroyed families and 
devastated communities all across our country.
  Our country faces many challenges, and I am sure we will continue to 
debate in the coming weeks how to address those, but today we will 
advance, on a bipartisan basis, lifesaving legislation that we know is 
working to combat fentanyl.
  New data from earlier this summer found that drug overdose deaths 
dropped 27 percent last year, compared to the prior year. Since the 
advent of the opioid crisis, we now have a much better sense of what 
works to prevent and treat addiction, the resources we need to do so, 
and the light that exists on the other end of this terrible tunnel. But 
we can only get there if we keep up the fight.
  The SUPPORT Act of 2018, signed into law by President Trump during 
his first term, established vital addiction treatment infrastructure. 
Reauthorizing this bipartisan law is essential to our addiction 
prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts. For example, the act 
includes funding for addiction treatment for pregnant women and funds 
for training and equipment to help first responders in this fight.
  The original SUPPORT Act passed the Senate with 98 votes, and this 
bipartisan reauthorization passed the House with 366 votes.
  Now the Senate will send it to the President's desk.
  While we have made progress in this fight, we cannot be complacent. 
While there are still too many families and communities ravaged by 
addiction, we cannot despair. Nothing less than people's lives depend 
on us acting.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 
XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 
2483 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 2483) to reauthorize certain programs that 
     provide for opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, and 
     recovery, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the committee was discharged, and the 
Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Ms. HASSAN. I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 2483) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, the Senate just passed a major bipartisan 
package to reauthorize the SUPPORT Act, and it is headed to President 
Trump's desk. Today is proof that despite our differences, bipartisan 
progress is possible.
  I am particularly pleased to be here with my colleague and chair of 
the HELP Committee Senator Cassidy, who has been instrumental in this 
fight and who will speak in just a moment.
  To our first responders, know that training and equipment are coming 
to help make your job easier.
  To our healthcare providers, know that resources are coming to help 
people get and stay in recovery.
  To those battling addiction, know that support is on the way.
  I am deeply grateful to a number of my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle, and I am looking forward to Senator Cassidy's comments just 
now. I am also grateful to Senator Sanders for working with me on 
getting this done as well as the advocates who knew we could not give 
up in this fight.
  This package will save lives, and I look forward to continuing to 
make available every tool we have to stop fentanyl.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I want to start by thanking Senator 
Hassan so much and Representative Brett Guthrie and other colleagues 
for their work to pass the SUPPORT Act. It is part of, as a doctor, I 
would say, a pro-patient--we would say pro-family--agenda that we wish 
to deliver for the American people.
  About a month and a half ago, President Trump had a signing ceremony 
for the HALT Fentanyl Act at the White House. That was my bill, so I 
was privileged to be there. Behind him were families holding the 
pictures of their children who had died from fentanyl overdose. 
Incredibly moving.
  I had a similar ceremony in Baton Rouge where, across Louisiana, 
people came and held a picture of their child who had died. In one 
case, the young man had a hard time sleeping, and somebody at his 
church gave him a pill to take. He took the pill. It was laced with 
fentanyl, and he died of an overdose.
  This is an incredibly powerful addictant, an incredibly powerful, 
ability-to-kill drug.
  The HALT Fentanyl Act is one part of it. It gives support to law 
enforcement as they attempt to combat this scourge.
  The SUPPORT Act is supporting those who are delivering that primary 
care, that first responder care, that care of a family for a loved one 
who might be addicted, that care to the patient herself or himself.
  Just this morning, I was on a radio program with Ted Dumas out of 
Louisiana. We were talking--as we talked about the HALT Fentanyl Act--
that there is somebody listening to this program who is addicted to 
fentanyl and is looking for a way out; there is some family member 
listening who knows they have a family member with a fentanyl addiction 
or some other addiction who needs a way out. The SUPPORT Act is giving 
them the tools they need to either come out of addiction or to help 
someone come out of addiction.
  Let me just give a shout-out to President Trump. Since he has taken 
office, we have seen a control of the southern border, we have seen the 
Mexican Army going after cartels who have been manufacturing and 
bringing in the fentanyl, and we have seen the chemical companies in 
China--which Senator Hassan and I, when we went to China last year, 
specifically asked the leadership of China to control. President Trump 
is going after those chemical companies and after the Government of 
China in order to control those chemical companies.
  This is a full-court press our government is making. Giving credit to 
President Trump where credit is due but also to the Congress for 
passing the HALT Fentanyl Act and now the SUPPORT Act. We are working 
to control this scourge.
  I look forward to this being signed into law. I look forward to 
continuing to work with congressional colleagues and the President to 
enact a pro-family, pro-patient agenda that addresses

[[Page S6713]]

this. I look forward to people coming out of addiction. One death from 
overdose is one death too many.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tuberville). The Senator from Florida.

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